Pre-Speech Thought Essay, Research Paper

Speech is defined as the use of audible words and/or sounds to communicate. But doesn?t it involve much more? This is where what I call pre-speech thoughts comes into play. In any normal person, much thought goes into what they say or do, since very rarely do people talk just to communicate. People talk with a given motive in mind, be it to obtain, impress, or to pass time. However, when people speak, they prepare themselves ahead of time within their mind. They prepare their phrases, predict what the other person would say or how they would respond, and prepare answers or phrases in a way fitting each of the predicted responses the other person could have, all before the speaking even begins.

Take the following example into mind:

A boy sees a girl who is attractive to him and of course would like to speak to, and perhaps, court her. Through his head run many phrases that he has perhaps heard elsewhere or formulated on his own. Before even approaching her he plans his actions: will he say ?hi?, ?hello?, ?what?s up?, or a similar greeting. He then decides whether or not he will continue the action and follow up with a way to connect with the girl in some way with a phrase such as ?My name is [ ] what?s your name?? or ?Do you come here often?? The boy predicts her answers and formulates responses accordingly. If she says, ?Yes, I come here all the time,? he will say ?Really, me too, but I haven?t seen you here before.? But if she says ?No, not really,? he will say ?Oh, are you from around here?? or a similar response. He will then plan to try to find a connection, and given her response, he will try to expand on it. For example, is she says ?yes?, he might ask, ?Do you live close?? and try to expand on that phrase in engage in conversation. All this occurs before he even approaches the girl, although some people might plan to different levels, all people do indeed plan.

If he knew the girl came to the same place every weekend, he might plan for days without knowing it. I don?t mean in an obsessive way, but in a nonchalant way, just a few days before the weekend. He might even subconsciously prepare physically for the meeting by ?dressing up? or putting on his favorite cologne in order to be more presentable or simply to impress.

People have plans because people have a need to belong or create an image for themselves. When most people plan what they?re going to say, they usually try and see themselves in the third person in order to try to see how people might view them when they say certain things. ?Will I look stupid if I do this when I talk?? ?What could I say if she shows interest???Etc.

The same is true throughout any given situation. A good example might be a job interview or something of that nature. When an interviewer asks a question of the interviewee, he/she predicts the response ahead of time and plans a fitting response or follow-up question. The interviewee, when asked a question, would, while answering the question, try and predict the next possible questions and formulate answers ahead of time in order to seemingly answer questions quickly. He also might think ?If I answer these questions quickly, this guy/girl will think I am a quick thinker. But if I screw up, this interview might as well be over.? The interviewer might be thinking, ?This guy answers questions really fast, he must be smart,? or ?This guy is trying answer questions too fast and is screwing up.? Either way, both people have an understanding of each other without ever saying a word.

Another scenario could be trying to bargain. We have all done this before, I am sure of that. Let?s say I see an item that I want for $10 at a yard sale. I want am willing to pay $7 for it. I would say ?Hey, I?ll give you five dollars for this,? predicting the seller would not sell it for that price, if he does, that?s all good and well, but if he doesn?t, I would raise my offer to $6, then finally $7. I might then try to make a comparison such as ?I could get a brand new one for $12 at Wal-Mart,? thinking that the seller might be thinking, ?Oh man, If I don?t sell it to him, he?ll just go to Wal-Mart and get it, I might lose a sale,? to which he would indeed sell the item for $7. I would then put my plan into action, making necessary adjustments. As you can see, I prepared my phrase, predicted a response, and formulated a response to the response.

In my own opinion, the less time it takes someone to prepare longer, more detailed, and more varied conversations or speeches, the more intelligent the person is. Abraham Lincoln for example, was known to have written the Gettysburg address on the train ride to the speech, a speech that was forever after a famous work of literal art.

I guess through this essay, I tried to show that humans all have an acute understanding of the human nature and do seemingly complicated thoughts in mere seconds in order to cope. We use these abilities we have as humans in order to pull ourselves to be viewed by others in a certain way. Every time we speak we take a chance that the other person may understand what we say more or less as the way we meant it. However, very rarely do two people understand the same thing in exactly the same way, since no two people think exactly alike. A slight disappointment knowing that there might not be a person that understands this essay as I meant it to be understood.